


Firefly, In Brief

by Redrikki



Category: Firefly
Genre: Character Study, Drabble Collection, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-23
Updated: 2014-03-23
Packaged: 2018-01-16 18:27:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 1,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1357492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redrikki/pseuds/Redrikki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Collection of short stories written for <a href="http://still-grrr.livejournal.com/">Still_grrr</a> Whedonverse weekly challenge</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Boys Are Over

**Author's Note:**

> Written for prompt 012- It's Over, It's Under

At night the crew walks in River’s head and introduces her to strangers. Little Malcolm Reynolds is a sweet boy, born on Shadow but raised in sunlight. He steps out into the ‘verse dressed in his mama’s homespun wisdom and kisses his cross before he charges into battle. The Shepherd-that-was culls his flock sparing only the good sheep, and sometimes not even them. He anoints them in cordite and blood and knows no green pastures.

Their waking selves hide them well. The Captain blusters and yells and does his crime while Book reads his symbol looking for Mal’s lost god. They tell themselves those days are over, those boys are over. They’ve buried them deep underground where no one will ever find them. But River knows their dreams.


	2. The Fine Print

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jane hadn't signed on for this. Written for prompt 016-Wash.

Jayne hadn’t signed on for this. He’d joined up for his own bunk, and a decent cut of some high-paying crime, not to start a war with the Alliance or be chased by no gorram Reavers. He still couldn’t figure how the hell he’d gotten talked into it. There weren’t no profit in it, and since when was loyalty to this bunch worth getting killed over? Since when did they matter? Jayne wasn’t the type to get all teary-eyed just ‘cause some smart-ass pilot died, but here he was. He’d signed on for the money, he wasn’t supposed to care.


	3. Loot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Today I was pompous and my sister was crazy. Written for prompt 31: River & Simon

Jayne tossed the journal aside. The doc wrote like he talked, and if he really thought _River seems somewhat improved_ he was more moon-brained than she was. Here was a stack of pictures. Simon at a hospital. Little River with sane eyes and an imp’s smile. Middle-aged couple with noses in the air and sticks up their asses. _We’re proud of you, son_ the note said, but Jayne reckoned they weren’t so proud now. It would have been right tragic if Jayne gave a good gorram, but the Tams were gone and he had some looting to do.


	4. Prettiest Girl in the Verse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jayne wasn't one to believe in love at first sight, but he was starting to reconsider. Written for prompt 032-Jayne.

Jayne didn’t put much stock in love at first sight, but that’s what it was. From the moment he saw her, he had to have her. True, she was with a man aiming to kill him, but Jayne didn’t pay that no mind. She’d be with him soon enough. A bit of exciting gun-play later and she was his. He ran his hands down her sides. A Callahan full-bore auto lock with a customized trigger and a double cartridge thorough gauge. She was the most beautiful thing ever fired a bullet in the verse. Jayne was gonna call her Vera.


	5. No Fear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Say goodbye to your daddy, Jonah. Written for prompt 034- Rance Burgess.

Petaline had been so afraid for so long on account of this man. She’d fretted about what would happen when he came. Who would he kill? What would he take? It hadn’t always been like that. Back before, Rance Burgess had been just another dumb rancher with a sad little dick and a frigid wife. But he’d grown with her belly, bigger and bigger ‘til he was the almighty god-king of the moon. Now he was small again. Just another broken man lying in the dirt. Petaline turned in disgust. Imagine being afraid of that. She’d never be afraid again.


	6. Rime of the Ancient Mariner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean. Written for prompt 049-poetry.

Serenity hung among the stars, trapped like a fly in the amber of the Verse. The golden glow of her engine was gone. Their firefly was dead. River gazed sadly down at Her as Wash steered them up and away.

“As idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean.”

“What?” Wash was distracted, tense with worry for hurt wife and rapidly dwindling home.

River looked into the vastness of space. Somewhere out there ghost-ships and slime monsters were waiting to find Her. “Don’t worry,” she told Wash with a reassuring smile. “It’s love that makes the South wind blow.”


	7. Dancer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's not ballet on Osiris. Written for prompt 049-ballet.

River’s heavy boots clomped on the rough planks of the dance floor and her bright skirt flashed and swirled about her as the folksong swung her from partner to partner. Her face was filled with wild joy, but Simon could remember her in soft pink tutus and delicate point shoes. At ten, she’d been graceful and refined in her transition from French-named pose to French-named pose. Their current life of sad little border planets and petty crime was a far cry from ballet on Osiris. Simon was wondering how much farther they could fall when someone grabbed him from behind.


	8. Pretty Floral Bonnet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How do I look? Written for prompt 056- Manly Mal.

Mal tied the ribbon on the bonnet and readjusted his skirts so he could draw his gun without getting it tangled. “How do I look?” he asked, turning around.

“Like no woman I ever saw.”

“Aw, don’t pay Jayne no mind, sir,” reassured Zoe, her lips twitching like she was trying not to laugh. “You look very fetching.”

Mal pulled his dignity ‘round him like a shawl. “Just remember, it takes a real man to wear a dress.”

“What’re you talking ‘bout, Mal?” Jayne asked as they climbed into the wagon. “Dresses are nothing. It’s them shoes that’ll kill ya.”


	9. Ballad of Jayne Cobb

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That don't even rhyme. Written for prompt 058-Jayne.

The last strains of the guitar faded as the audience considered the song.

“What? That’s it? Parts of it don’t even rhyme right.”

“Gorram it woman, it’s the sentiment what matters.”

“No, she’d right. This is Jayne we’re talking ‘bout, the man who robbed the magistrate for us. A hero like that deserves a song what rhymes.”

“Well, I like it. It’s rough, manly, defiant. Fits him.”

“Catchy too. Be humming it all day.”

“Good song. The man’d be proud.”

“To Jayne, everybody.”

Thirty-odd mugs of mudders milk went up in the air. “To Jayne.” Thirty-odd drinks were tossed back.


	10. To Have and to Hold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Man thought he knew her. He didn't know a gorram thing. Written for prompt 064-Zoe.

The tiny smile on Niska’s face told Zoe right where this was going. The man liked his games, liked his power. He wanted her to choose. Man thought he knew her, but he didn’t know a gorram thing. “That one,” she said, pointing to her husband. Niska looked real surprised but it wasn’t a choice, not really. Mal was her friend, her captain, but Wash was just hers. ‘Sides, it wasn’t like Zoe wouldn’t be back for the captain later, ‘cept next time she wouldn’t be bringing money. Too bad for him, Niska didn’t know a gorram thing about her.


	11. Bits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She jangled. Written for prompt 066- River.

There were bits, missing bits, and what was left jangled under River’s skin like broken glass. There were days when the weight of the Verse pressed in on her and rubbed her jagged edges raw. Those days she couldn’t be River, couldn’t find all her River bits. But then Simon would smile and need her to be River, so she would pull her bits together, smile back and be River. It was like moving mountains, making time flow backwards. Bits were still missing, always would be missing, when she tried, she could pretend and no one would hear her jangling.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Hired Hand (Five Things Mix)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1569497) by [inalasahl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/inalasahl/pseuds/inalasahl)
  * [Kaleidoscope](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7565137) by [damnslippyplanet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/damnslippyplanet/pseuds/damnslippyplanet)




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